Coming from director Richard Linklater, best known for modern teenage
comedies like DAZED AND CONFUSED and SLACKER, BEFORE SUNRISE took a lot
of people by surprise -- but there weren't many in the theaters to be
surprised. This is both surprising, because the movie is intelligent,
honest and sincere, and hardly surprising at all, since it's also
slow-paced, talky and ultimately not as involving as it keeps promising
to be.

Jesse (Ethan Hawke) is a college-age American morosely at loose ends in
Europe. He went to Spain to stay with his girlfriend only to find she's
dumped him for someone else. He's been wandering about Europe, and as
the movie opens, is on a train to Vienna to catch a plane back to the
States at dawn the next day. Through realistic circumstances, he meets
Celine (Julie Delpy), a French woman his own age who, fortunately,
speaks very fluent, idiomatic English. Somewhat shyly attracted, they
start talking about whatever comes into their minds -- parents, death,
etc. -- and when he gets off in Vienna, he persuades her to join him.

The rest of the movie consists of them walking about scenic Vienna,
getting to know each other, falling more and more in love. But
Linklater and his co-writer Kim Krizan never let the film slide into
melodrama; they avoid all contrivances, such as the classic "there's
something I need to tell you about me..." dodge. These two young people
are exactly as presented, and their circumstances remain as realistic
as they are.

That's the great strength of this movie -- its simple, honest realism.
Linklater clearly wanted to make a story that was at once deeply
romantic, and yet believable, and that he's done. It's very low key;
their romantic feelings are stirred and roused, but they never fall
into each other's arms in an ecstasy of passion. (It's never clear
whether they have sex, for one thing.) The movie is authentic and
original, almost daring, in its refusal to bow to movie conventions.
But at the same time, the dialog is never particularly exciting; in an
effort to make the long chat between Jesse and Celine sound
sponataneous and real, Linklater and Krizan sacrifice some of the
beauty of the written word. After all, it's hard to sound realistic if
you also sound like a practiced poet, a master of prose. Occasionally,
the talk does veer into areas that go beyond sheer gabby realism, as
when they begin discussing love and commitment. "God is in the space
between" us, one of them says. Magic must lie in the attempt to
understand another person; the answer to relationships must be in that
attempt.

There's also a quite wonderful scene in which they encounter a
disheveled man by the river; he seems to be homeless, but he's
obviously not just a common bum -- because in exchange for a little
money, he offers to write them a poem including a word they give him.
("Milkshake") When they return later, they're both surprised when his
poem turns out to be quite good. Jesse, the pragmatic American, assumes
that the street poet already had a poem ready into which he inserted
their word. Celine doesn't care; she loves the idea itself.

Jesse, though, is generally more naive than Celine; he's extremely open
and unguarded, perhaps more than a little on the rebound from his
collapsed relationship. However, he's over-cautious about being
suckered by those they meet. Celine is more sophisticated, but she's
willing to go along with the predictions of the psychic they meet, and
with the poem the street poet writes for them. It's not that she
believes the psychic, it's that it's more entertaining, more touching,
more romantic to play along with the predictions.

Perhaps the most truthful line in the movie is when Jesse tells Celine
that sometimes he gets sick of himself; he just can't stand having only
himself for company. He bores himself -- but when he's with her, he's
not sick of her.

The only phony moment in the film comes with their goodbyes; this
sounds completely written and artificial, and both Hawke and Delpy,
excellent throughout, falter here as if they're aware that the lines do
not ring true.

The very ending of the film is ambiguous; throughout its length, BEFORE
SUNRISE has played its carefully limited game with honesty and
truthfulness, and it doesn't falter in the very last few minutes: we do
not know if Jesse and Celine ever will meet again. American audiences
become frustrated by ambiguity and open-ended stories; they want
everything neatly wrapped up. It might be this ultimate refusal to bend
to romantic conventions cost the film a larger audience. But it has a
solid, if minor reputation, and is likely to gain a following over the
years.

Not, however, because of this DVD, which simply presents the movie and
the utterly minimal extras of trailer and scene access. Again, Warner
Bros. has hurried a disc out without trying to bolster its appeal. A
narration track by Linklater would have been particularly welcome. But
no, it's just another bare-bones DVD.